George Benton never got his shot at the title but had some really good wins over future champions and was really solid all around and was never knocked down. We all know about Zales toughness. Can he get through Benton's philly shell and break him down to the body? Who wins between these middleweight bad asses?
Tough call. If Billy Soose could outbox Zale then so could Benton. Really tough choice for me. Zale obviously goes down as the greater fighter in the history books but Benton capable of beating just about anyone IMO
I think that this would be a good fight and that a peak Zale would win. And Benton did not invent using the shoulder to defend against a right hand.
I see it the same way. I just rewatched the Benton vs Carter fight over the weekend and was impressed with how solid Benton was defensively but ultimately he was outworked. If Carter could out work him then Zale definitely could. Zale was an absolute beast of a fighter for sure and his rep as one of the best body punchers of all time is well deserved. I always thought Benton was an amazing body puncher as well and he certainly passed that ability on to Mike McCallum when he trained him years later. Shame he never got his title shot.
